SpaceX credit risk surges on report it is seeking to borrow $40 billion

[Financial News] SpaceX’s credit risk indicators surged to a record high and its bond prices weakened after reports emerged that the company was discussing raising $40 billion (about 55 trillion won) to buy AI chips from Nvidia.
According to ICE Data Services, SpaceX’s five-year credit default swap (CDS) premium surged 16.7 basis points intraday to 197.6 basis points on the 8th (local time). (1 basis point = 0.01 percentage point)
That was the highest intraday level since CDS trading linked to SpaceX began last June.
A CDS is a credit derivative that functions like insurance against a bond issuer’s default risk. Its premium—the price of the product—is regarded as a measure of the issuer’s default risk.
The Financial Times (FT) previously reported, citing sources, that SpaceX, which develops technologies ranging from rockets to artificial intelligence (AI), was seeking $10 billion in bank loans and a $30 billion bond issuance. If the total $40 billion in financing goes through, it would be one of the largest-ever bond offerings to build AI infrastructure.
According to Trace, the spread on SpaceX’s 5.875% bonds maturing in 2036 widened 5 basis points to 193 basis points as of 1:53 p.m. New York time. Bond prices for Meta, Skydance and others also weakened across the board.
The premium on Meta’s 6.45% bonds maturing in 2066 rose 5 basis points to 189 basis points, while the spread on Skydance’s 8.9% 40-year bonds rose 7 basis points to 342 basis points.
As tech companies and AI model developers invest and borrow hundreds of billions of dollars to build data centers, it remains unclear when the wave of debt will peak.
Hyperscalers, data centers and other AI infrastructure projects raised a total of $370 billion (about 496 trillion won) in the corporate bond market this year. That is far more than the total $125 billion raised in 2025.

[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, international affairs specialist Reporter